More about where your tax dollars really go... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mikemover · #1 06-01-2003, 12:12 AM

More poetic wisdom concerning the current pathetic condition of our government handout (aka welfare) system:

Excerpted from Neal's 'daily program notes' at www.boortz.com

________

THE POOR, POOR PITIFUL POOR

Some of you listeners remember the conversation I had with “Cheyenne” yesterday. She has two kids, not married, and makes about $14,000. She pays absolutely no income tax whatsoever and gets about $4,000 from the government! --- that sickening Earned Income Tax Credit nonsense. What’s more, she sees absolutely nothing wrong with her scenario … after all, her parents pay taxes. (

) I know many of you remember the conversation because I’ve received quite a few messages telling me what a heartless slob I am for challenging Cheyenne’s claim to someone else’s property.

My guess is that for most of her life Cheyenne has been surrounded by a bunch of supportive friends telling her that none of this is her fault.. You have two kids you can’t support? Well, that’s not your fault … blame their father(s). You don’t make enough money? That greedy boss of yours is trying to just keep it all for himself.

So – finally someone spells it out. This lady made choices, and those choices led to her being a single mother of two with no marketable job skills …. And now she feels entitled to someone else’s money.

I took a few minutes to script a little meeting between a "Cheyenne-type citizen" and her congressman. See what you think.

(As the curtain rises we find Congressman Dewey Cheatem sitting behind his desk in his home district office. Ima Whiner, one of his constituents, has wormed her way into an appointment with Congressman Cheatem to voice some concerns.)

Yes, Ms. Whiner, what can I do for you?

I need some help. I just can’t make ends meet any more.

What kind of help?

Money. I need some money. I just don’t make enough money to support my family.

Your family? Tell me about them.

I have two kids. Seven and ten.

What does your husband do?

I’m not married.

Divorced?

No. I’m just not married.

Does the kid’s father help to support them?

No, neither one of them do.

Neither one of them?

Yeah. They have different fathers.

What do you do for a living?

Nails.

You do nails?

Yeah, you know, nails. I do nails at Nail Fantasy at the mall.

How much money do you make doing nails.

Not enough. I make about $14,000 a year.

How much education do you have?

I like finished high school, you know, but college just wasn’t for me. I wanted a new car, you know, and I needed to go to work to get the money for payments.

Your oldest child is ten. How old are you?

I’m 26.

OK .. what do you want from me? Why did you come see me today?

I need more money. I know there must be some sort of like government checks I can get. I keep hearing about people getting checks for all sorts of things. I want a check.

With your income, you don’t pay income taxes, do you?

No, but I have payroll taxes … and I should get some of that money back. Other people are getting checks. I want a check.

Wait a minute --- I have something here that might help you.

(Congressman Cheatem reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a .38 caliber revolver – he pushes it across the desk to Ima.)

Do you know what this is?

It’s a gun.

Can you use one?

Yeah, my first baby’s daddy showed me how.

OK then. I want you to take this gun, go find someone who has been more responsible with their life than you have, and I want you to use this gun to rob them. That way you should be able to get the money you say you need.

Rob them? I can’t just walk up to someone and rob them! Are you crazy?

Why can’t you?

Because that’s, you know, illegal. It’s, like, illegal! I could get caught and they could put me in jail!

But you’re here asking me for a check! What if there was some sort of a government check you could get, where do you think that money would come from?

I don’t know. The government?

Sure, the government. But where does the government get its money?

The taxpayers, I guess.

Yeah, the taxpayers. So you want me to arrange for some money to be taken from these taxpayers and given to you, right?

Well, other people are getting checks. Why can’t I get one?

Why don’t you just take this gun and go get some!

I can’t!

You mean you won’t. You won’t pick up this gun and go take someone else’s money, but you feel perfectly comfortable coming into my office and asking me to, right?

What do you mean?

Well just how in the hell do you think we get the money you want us to give to you? Do you think these people just come wandering in here with buckets of their money just begging us to find some irresponsible losers to give it to? Come on, girl? We take it, just like I suggested you take it. We take it at the point of a gun! We point that gun at those poor saps and we say “hand it over, or we’ll take every damn thing that you own.”

Well, everybody has to pay taxes!

You don’t!

I know, but that’s because, like , I don’t make enough money!

And whose fault is that?

It’s not my fault. I can’t help it if I just haven’t been as lucky as those other people.

Yeah, you can’t help it. You decided that you needed a new car and you couldn’t afford one if you were going to college, then you decided to get pregnant as a teenager by two different deadbeats who got between your legs and then out of your life … and it’s all someone else’s fault.

Hey! I don’t have to take that from you!

OK … calm down. (The Congressman puts the gun back in his desk drawer) You don’t need to use this gun. You don’t need to because we can.

Who’s “we?”

We .. the government. We can do what you can’t. Like I said, we can use this gun to take property from someone else … and I’ll see to it that some of that money gets to you. You’ll get your check.

Oh, thank you!

But there’s a catch here. You have to do something for me.

Sure! Anything!

No, no. Button your blouse up. That’s not what I had in mind. I have plenty of interns around here that would cause me a lot less grief than you would. What you have to do is get out there and register to vote … register to vote, and then remember just who it is that put that check in your pocket the next time an election rolls around.

No problem! I’ll do it, I promise!

_________
More and more people every day discover that they can "vote" themselves into a free ride. What will happen to people who actually EARN thier money, once these leeches become the majority?

Mike

#2 06-01-2003, 10:42 AM

Amen Mikemover!!!!

Kuan · #3 06-01-2003, 11:18 AM

Does it really bother you that much Mike? I mean, anyone who pays less taxes than you is, in a sense, "stealing" from you. I know I'm paying a bit more than my fair share when that pothole at the end of my street gets fixed, but hey I drive on that road everyday. (Costs something like $5,000 to fix a pothole, dunno why) But what am I gonna say, don't drive over that pothole because you're not paying to have it fixed?

I know I know, you want absolutely zero taxes, but who will fix the potholes? I don't mind that people get welfare checks as long as they spend it at Kmart

BTW, does anyone find it strange that we're taxed in advance? Why can't we wait till the end of the year and then cut a check to the IRS? For everything else we pay after services or goods rendered, in the case of taxes we pay in advance, and we don't always get what we bargained for anyways!

#4 06-01-2003, 11:25 AM

mike,

why dont enough hard working decent "winners" step forward to vote these "losers" canidates out of the system?

if one system is so "wrong", it seems that the vast majority of those in the "right" would take their destined reigns (sp?) and dispell all the afore mentioned "losers" and their leaders.

mikemover · #5 06-01-2003, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kuan

I know I know, you want absolutely zero taxes, but who will fix the potholes? I don't mind that people get welfare checks as long as they spend it at Kmart

BTW, does anyone find it strange that we're taxed in advance? Why can't we wait till the end of the year and then cut a check to the IRS?

I have NEVER said that I want zero taxes. I want FAIR and REASONABLE taxes. The progressive income tax system is NEITHER.

They devised the witholding system to take it out automatically and gradually so that it's not so obvious to you how much you are REALLY paying! It removes the "sticker shock" factor, and complicates the math with deductions, returns, etc., so that in the end, the average taxpayer doesn't even know how much they are paying! If you had to pay it in a lump sum every year, like many of us self-employed folks do, you'd be more likely to be VERY unhappy about it, like ME!

Mike

Kuan · #6 06-01-2003, 11:43 AM

Mind if I field this one even though it wasn't addressed to me? I think it's a lack of a truly unified "independent" voice which detracts people from voting out our incumbents. A paradox in itself, for there is really no such thing as an independent voice which most people will agree with.

Most political battles are fought over what seems to be (in hindsight) minor points of the big picture. I still think both, Republicans and Democrats, agree on almost everything except when it comes to a few things... like a percentage point or two on taxes, abortion, or gun control. An independent who chooses to fight battles based on these few items finds that disagreeing with one side means favoring the other, but to be totally radical almost ensures that you go down in history as some kind of nutcase.

engatwork · #7 06-01-2003, 11:47 AM

Quote:

you'd be more likely to be VERY unhappy about it

I could not agree more. I would like to see them stop the withholding and then have everyone pay up during April. I think there would be a revolt that would make the Revolutionary War look like a party.

#8 06-01-2003, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kuan
to be totally radical almost ensures that you go down in history as some kind of nutcase.

i voted for perot, twice.

letterman's fall joke as told every year" "its a sure sign that fall has arrived, today in central park, i saw a nut gathering squirrels" :p

Mr. BILL · #9 06-01-2003, 12:13 PM

Mikemover: right on brotha!

Thrillbilly: In theory you are right. However, the liberal strategy is to take so many people off the tax roles that they once again have a dedictaed consticuancy (sp?) that will keep them in power forever. Don't laugh, the same strategy kept them in power fron FDR to Bill" no pants".

In fact, the reason for this "Tax Rebate" scheme is that since nearly half the working public pays no taxes, the only way to get the masses to vote for them is to cut them a check. That money comes from the "evil" rich and there a lot fewer rich than not, so it's OK?

Kuan: I for one don't aspire to pay zero taxes. However, I think pretty much everyone should pay their fair share. If you and I went to lunch and I said, "since you make 50% more money than I do, you should pay the check". Would you think that's fair...to you? Yet, the tax system in our country works that way.

A friend of mine sent me a clever story on how the tax system works. Ten men meet for dinner. When the check comes, someone gets the idea to split up the bill based on each person's income. The poorest 2 pay nothing and the rest pay anywhere from $6-$23. This works so well the decide to meet every day and pay the same way.

After a while, the restaraunt owner rewards their patronage by giving them a 20% discount. They are pretty happy with this. Using the same formula as before, the 2 who paid nothing still paid 0 and the rest paid between $5 and $18. Then the 2 guys who paid nothing said "we don't benefit at all from this, it discriminates agianst the poor". The next 2 who only saved $1 said" we only saved a buck, the richest guy saved five times more than us. This plan favors the rich".

They became so angry, they beat up the wealthiest guy and left. The next day, they all showed up except the wealthiest guy. They all looked at each other and said, "now what do we do? I can't make up for the difference". So they all had to leave.

mikemover · #10 06-01-2003, 12:19 PM

I've heard that somewhere before...It's an EXCELLENT, very SIMPLE example that illustrates in idiot-proof terms how our current tax system is unfair, and WILL eventually FAIL.

Mike

Kuan · #11 06-01-2003, 12:26 PM

You know what, if I were the rich guy I'd be asking the owner where the hell are the cops? I pay extra money so I don't have to put up with these guys jumping me like that. I'm gonna go incorporate in the Cayman Islands.

#12 06-01-2003, 01:03 PM

Louis: Looking good, Billy Ray!
Billy Ray: Feeling good, Louis

#13 06-01-2003, 03:37 PM

my pea brain works like this: a democracy is a nation administered by a group of elected officials that sets the rules (hopefully) according to the wishes of the majority.

as far as mr. bores eloquent example- if the woman meets the current program guidelines as set by the current leaders, then she has an absolute “right” to any funds the program provides under the guidelines.

everyone else >18 either endorsed the leaders that approved those standards, or didn’t organize enough votes to elect policymakers who better reflect their ideology.

don’t like it: work/vote to change it, or shutup/leave (look me up when you get to cayman!)

PS- “why the chicken crossed the road” as told by:

Pat Buchanan - to take a job from a decent hard working american.

MLK jr - i do not know why he crossed the road, and i may not be there to cross the road with you, but I look forward to the day when all chickens can cross the road without having their motives called into question

moparmike · #14 06-01-2003, 04:15 PM

You Go! I am also a libertarian, and dont believe in income tax. My city, that the libertarians and conservatives lovingly call "Fayettenam" because of the borderline socialist tendancys of the city gov (we pay 10% in tax at a restaruant, hotel, or bar), is hell bent on dictating every Fayetnamese citizen's life.

I would love for a larger Libertarian presence to be here. If you arent a Green or a Liberal, you cant be elected here. The rest of NW Ark is conservative, and oddly enough its said that we have the largest population of millionares per capita in a region.

mikemover, you should send that to LP.org, self-government.org, or someone like that.

Later

mikemover · #15 06-04-2003, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ThrillBilly
my pea brain works like this: a democracy is a nation administered by a group of elected officials that sets the rules (hopefully) according to the wishes of the majority.

as far as mr. bores eloquent example- if the woman meets the current program guidelines as set by the current leaders, then she has an absolute “right” to any funds the program provides under the guidelines.

everyone else >18 either endorsed the leaders that approved those standards, or didn’t organize enough votes to elect policymakers who better reflect their ideology.

don’t like it: work/vote to change it, or shutup/leave (look me up when you get to cayman!)

Discussing these subjects here and elsewhere is one of many ways that I AM working to change things! Awareness is only the beginning, and I am always trying to make people WAKE UP. Our two-party system is VERY, VERY, VERY firmly established, and our electoral system is set up to HEAVILY favor incumbents, AND the two major parties, and the two major parties have NO intention of making it easy to change this situation, and you know it, I know it, everyone knows it...I don't know why more people aren't up-in-arms about it, but I AM! So I will not be shutting up about it any time soon.

Mike